This is my yappy place. Sometimes I share my workshop experiences in jewelry-making; sometimes I talk about other things that interest me. I have created tabs along the top of my blog (next to the word home, below this msg) so you can select certain categories if you like.

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Thursday, February 16, 2017

So I'm cleaning the bedroom (again!) because things accumulate. This means, to me, that I have too much stuff.

I am methodical, though. I do my "clock" again. Pick one spot in the room and just pick up EVERYTHING in that one spot and deal with it... then rotate to the right and do the same thing to the next spot and so on until I've made a 360 around the whole room.

I just picked up a box of strings. Well, I mean, not strings exactly... it's cords, I guess. Pieces of leather cording and hemp and cotton, etc. These are all for use in jewelry making. And I look at some of these and it's easy to see why I purchased them in the first place... they're lovely. I see this beautiful shade of teal in a soft suede cord and I hesitate.

And I hear that voice again: "I might need this some day." And there it is... the phrase that is the bane of every hoarder. I might need it some day

So the other side of me reasons, "I have no current idea what I'd use that for and if I ever do create a design that needs something like that, I can purchase it again."

"But isn't that a waste of money? 'Cause I already have it here, now. If I sell this at destash pricing, and then buy it again down the line for full price, isn't that wasteful?"

"No, because it costs me more (in many ways) to keep an entire box of cords with the thought that someday I may need something that's in there."

And so... to destash it goes!

I've got my bins set up on my bed. 12 boxes...

Jewelry to work on

Jewelry ready to list online

Jewelry for the gallery

Things to photograph

Beads

Findings

Tools

Jewelry to cannibalize

Things to list on destash

Items currently on destash

Items that sold

Garage sale

I will be listing in destash soon. If you want in, it's a public FB group.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Been busy with holidays, problems with house repairs, custom orders, duties as my new position as president-elect of the gallery, and my first workshop of 2017.

I have been watching a lot of "Tiny House" episodes and today is my first day where I have time. I had to decide "work" vs "organizing". Since I don't have ideas for specific designs at the moment, I went with "organizing".

To repeat, I have no desire to live in a tiny house (although there are caveats to that, but I'll explain at a later time). So yeah, not downsizing in order to live in a tiny house but it's definitely inspiring in the way of ... well, downsizing, organizing, streamlining, etc. I think that is good no matter where you live.

Putting clean laundry away at the moment. Do I need 10 kitchen towels? Yes, it's awesome in so far as I don't have to do the laundry as often, but.... they take up space whether they're dirty and in the hamper or clean and in the storage drawer. So I'm limiting certain items to the storage bins I have assigned them.

This is one of those standard size canvas boxes that fits into a wall unit. I have four bins in that wall unit so whatever fits in one of those bins is it.

They contain:

Small towels (kitchen and bathroom)

Large towels (bath towels)

Pants and shorts

T-Shirts (my work shirts)

My nice shirts get hung up. In my closet is an open bin each for: socks, undies, bras. Sweaters and jackets are on hooks, along with scarves, gloves hats, and purses (well, bags really, but to some women they're purses).

I am pretty good in the kitchen... I don't have a TON of cutlery or dishes. It means I have to do the dishes a lot. :-)

Books. That could be considered one of my downfalls. I have given away and sold many of my books in the past five years, but I still have a pretty healthy collection.

A lot of the jewelry books are keepers. They're inspiration and references.

Then I've got some "thinking" books... they're the ones on philosophy, physics, neuroscience, astronomy, and psychology. I'm not ready to part with those.

There are some cookbooks I have to leaf through before deciding if I want to keep them or not. Same with the "self-help" books.

I have a large collection of horror books... those are going up for sale.

The jewelry magazines... sigh... I really don't want to keep them. It'll be hard, but I must force myself. I will start going through them and will clip out anything of interest. The only problem with that is my "interests" change. But as someone who could excel at hoarding (BUT WHAT IF I NEED IT SOME DAY?!), I just have to convince myself that the possibility of losing something that I'd never be able to find on the internet or in a book elsewhere is not as important as the idea of having a less cluttered living space.